Feb 28, 2014

"Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted, but
getting what you have, which once you have got it, you may be smart
enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known." -
Garrison KeillorI am very lucky, because I always want and have a Happy
Friday!

Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris, born
March 10, 1940, is the first Westerner in history to be awarded an
8th degree Black Belt (Grand Master) in Taekwondo. He also has 10th
degree black belt in Chun Kuk Do (he is founder of this school); 9th
degree black belt in Tang Soo Do and BJJ; and brown belts in
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo. In 2005, Norris founded the World
Combat League, a full-contact, team-based martial arts competition.

As we approach that
time of year when thoughts turn to Spring cleaning, it is probably a
good idea to also think about what we might recycle. The original
recycling symbol was designed in 1970 by Gary Anderson, a senior at
the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. It was
submitted to the International Design Conference as part of a
nationwide contest for high school and college students sponsored by
the Container Corporation of America.

The symbols below show the various types of materials. If there is
an R in front of the letters, that means it was already recycled.
The numbers range from 1 to 7, defining which type of material it
is.

Type 1 PolyEthylene TErephthalate is used for pop bottles. Type 2
High-Density PolyEthylene is used for milk and detergent bottles.
Twenty-seven percent of type 1 is recycled, including 41 percent of
plastic pop bottles. About 7 percent of type 2 plastic recycled.

Recycling types 3 through 7 are rare, because using virgin material
is cheaper. Recycling rates for these materials are about 1-2
percent.

The recycling rate for all plastic packaging is about 4.5 percent,
compared with 53 percent for aluminum.

- A container or package, marked with
this symbol above was manufactured with at least some materials that have
been recycled. Generally, additional information is conveyed with
the symbol such as, 'Printed on recycled paper'.

There is a symbol for glass, but usually all glass is recyclable.
There are many other symbols used for various materials, and
different symbols in different countries. They are all meant to
make consumers aware of recycling, even if many of the products
are not recycled.

For calendar year 2014, the tax imposed
under § 4161(b)(2)(A) on the first sale by the manufacturer,
producer, or importer of any shaft of a type used in the manufacture
of certain arrows is $0.48 per shaft. It is one of the few taxes
that has not changed from 2013.

Seahorses are one of very few
species where the male 'gives birth'. The female deposits her eggs
in a brood pouch located on her mate's belly. He fertilizes them
internally and carries them until they hatch, which can be anywhere
from 9 to 45 days based on species and water temperature. A single
male may carry hundreds of eggs in his pouch. Baby sea horses are
called fry (singular and plural). Baby big-belly seahorses, aside
from being too small to exhibit their distinct characteristic round
bellies, are exact miniature replicas of their parents.The picture
shows how small a fry is.

When baby seahorses are first born, the fry will gulp air at the
surface to help fill their swim bladder. Their diet is usually live
brine shrimp called Artemia. Seahorses live among coral reefs and
sea grass beds.

Fans at the University of Pennsylvania
throw toast on the football field after the third quarter because
the school banned liquor, which was formerly used to toast the team.
The students took the toast literally and now throw real toast.

This is much better than the University of New Hampshire fans, who
throw a fish on the ice during school hockey games. Also fishy,
during 2011, fans of the Nashville Predators threw catfish on the
ice.

Speaking of hockey, fans in Detroit have a tradition of throwing an
octopus on the ice during Detroit Red Wings home playoff games. It
began during the 1952 playoffs, when a National Hockey League team
played two best-of-seven series to capture the Stanley Cup. The
octopus, with eight arms, symbolized the number of playoff wins
necessary for the Red Wings to win the Stanley Cup. Brothers Pete
and Jerry Cusimano hurled an octopus into the rink. The team swept
the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens en route to winning
the championship.

Florida Panthers fans littered the ice with plastic rats during
face-offs and regular play during Game 5 of their 2012 playoff
series.

Other tosses, that seem mild by comparison, include throwing flowers
for figure skaters, or tossing hats when a hockey player makes a hat
trick.

It need not take a lot of effort.
John Morley, M.D., director of the division of geriatric medicine at
Saint Louis University outlines a ten-step program to improve
quality of life as we age.

He suggests little changes that involve good eating, such as
including dark chocolate in your diet, drinking wine, socializing,
adding simple exercises, fidgeting in your office chair to burn
calories, spending time walking from your car to the store rather
than driving to find a close parking space, working in your garden,
taking the stairs instead of the elevator or going dancing once a
week. I already socialize, drink wine, and eat chocolate, but
need to practice fidgeting a bit more.

Herbs are only obtained from the leafy
part of a plant while spices can come from any other part of the
plant. A single plant can be the source of both an herb and a spice,
or more than one spice.

The coriander plant, is an example of a plant that produces both an
herb and a spice. The leafy green part is known as coriander leaf
(typically known as cilantro in the Americas), while the dried seeds
are sold whole or ground as coriander. Nutmeg and mace, both spices,
are derived from the seed of the fruit of the myristica fragrans, or
nutmeg tree. The seed has a waxy red outer layer (called the “aril”)
which is carefully removed, dried, and ground to make mace. The rest
of the seed is then dried out and sold whole or ground to be used as
nutmeg.

Culinary herbs are the leafy portions of a plant that die down after
each growing season and can be used as dried or fresh. Examples
include basil, bay leaves, parsley, cilantro, mint, rosemary and
thyme.

Spices have a much broader spectrum of origin and can be utilized
from any other part of a plant such as the roots, bark, flowers,
fruit, and seeds. Examples come from berries (peppercorns), roots
(ginger), seeds (nutmeg), flower buds (cloves) or the stamen of
flowers (saffron). Spices are always used in dried form and have
also traditionally been used as a preservative. Archaeologists have
found evidence in Egyptian tombs of spices used for embalming,
dating back to 3000 B.C.

Allspice is not a combination of anything. It is the dried unripe
fruit of Pimenta dioica tree. The name allspice was coined by the
English, who thought it combined the flavor of cinnamon, nutmeg, and
cloves.

Black pepper is a flowering vine, cultivated for its fruit, which is
dried and used as a spice and seasoning. Salt is neither an herb
nor a spice, because it is an inorganic mineral.

Jersey is a crown dependency island of the
UK where the people have been knitting great wool sweaters for
centuries. These tight knit warm sweaters were initially used as an
inner layer by rural seamen before evolving into common outerwear.
Jersey sweaters spread about the UK and northern Europe as the
country’s trading industry rose in prominence during the late 17th
and early 18th centuries. Their popularity gained so much, the name
“jersey” became synonymous with “sweater” in countries as far away
as the United States during the 1850s. When American football
developed, players needed strong, insular uniforms, and thick wool
jerseys did the job..

Athletic jerseys bore increasingly little resemblance to their bulky
ancestral tops. Just as the name had become a synonym for sweater,
it soon became a synonym for athletic uniform. Lightweight baseball
shirts were often called “jerseys” despite being generally made of
flannel and incorporating short sleeves, buttons, and collars.
Canadian hockey sweaters began being called jerseys. Americans used
jerseys when they were playing football, then baseball, then hockey.

A campus is traditionally the
land on which a college or university and related institutional
buildings are situated. It usually includes libraries, lecture
halls, residence halls, student centers, etc.

It comes from a Latin word for "field" and was first used to
describe the grounds of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton
University) during the 18th century. Other American colleges later
adopted the word to describe individual fields at their own
institutions. A school has multiple spaces, such as a campus, a
field, a yard, etc.

From the age of
thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size.
Most people lose fifty per cent of their taste buds by the time they
reach age sixty.
Your body contains enough iron to make a spike strong enough to hold
your weight.
The amount of carbon in the human body is enough to fill about 9,000
'lead' pencils.
One square inch of human skin contains 625 sweat glands.
The surface area of a human lung is equal to that of a tennis court.
Give a tennis ball a hard squeeze and you use about the same amount
of force your heart uses to pump blood around your body.
When you blush, your stomach lining also reddens.
The human body has less muscles in it than a caterpillar.
Your eyes blink enough times in a lifetime to see blackness for over
a year.

As far back as 3000-5000 BC, ancient Egyptians
were using a tooth cream. This dental cream was comprised of
powdered ashes from oxen hooves, myrrh, egg shells, pumice. They
used their fingers, instead of a brush. Greeks and Romans improved
on the process. Then China and India were using a powder/paste as
well. The Chinese were particularly forward-thinking in adding
flavoring, such as Ginseng, herbal mints, and salt.

Doctors, dentists, and chemists in Britain introduced tooth powders
(or dentrifice) that included abrasive substances like brick dust
and crushed china. Glycerine was added in the early 19th century,
transforming the powders into pastes. In 1892, Dr. Washington
Sheffield of Connecticut invented Dr. Sheffield’s Crème Dentrifice.
It was the first time toothpaste was featured in a collapsible tube.
In 1873 toothpaste was first mass-produced.

Tom and Kate Chappell sought to create their own toothpaste. They
moved from Philadelphia to rural Kennebunk, Maine, and introduced
the first natural toothpaste in 1975. It is still called Tom’s of
Maine

The major ingredient in Crest
was discovered by accident when a student left a sample in the
furnace too long and when discovered, found that it made it possible
to mix the ingredient with fluoride. At first it used stannous
fluoride, marketed as "Fluoristan" (this was also the original brand
name it was sold as. Later it changed from "Fluoristan" to "Crest
with Fluoristan"). The composition of the toothpaste had been
developed by Drs. Muhler, Harry Day, and William H. Nebergall at
Indiana University, and was patented by Nebergall.

Procter & Gamble paid royalties from use of the patent and thus
financed a new dental research institute at the university. The
active ingredient of Crest was changed in 1981 to sodium
monofluorophosphate, or "Fluoristat". Today Crest toothpastes use
sodium fluoride, or "Dentifrice with Fluoristat". Recently
introduced Crest Pro-Health, uses stannous fluoride again and an
abrasive whitener together called "Polyfluorite".

Another source, Snopes is a site that debunks the myths floating
around in cyberspace. Many of the popular emails asking for money,
or promising that Microsoft will donate if you forward this email,
etc. This valuable site became even more valuable recently when it
cited another of my joke books "Greatest Jokes of the Century,
Book 14" for a story about Nancy Pelosi. http://www.snopes.com/politics/pelosi/captaincook.asp

Today
is Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day, or the
Feast of Saint Valentine. It is observed on February 14 each year in
many countries around the world. It is not an official holiday.

Its origins go back to the ancient Roman celebration of Lupercalia,
which honored the gods Lupercus and Faunus, and the legendary
founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. Lupercalia festivities and
feasts are purported to have included the pairing of young women and
men. Men would draw women's names from a container and each couple
would be paired until next year's celebration.

It was not called "Valentine's Day" until a priest named Valentine
came along. Emperor Claudius handed down a decree that soldiers
remain single, believing that soldiers would be distracted and
unable to concentrate on fighting if they were married or engaged.
Valentine converted many guards to Christianity and defied the
emperor by secretly performing marriage ceremonies. As a result of
his defiance, Valentine was put to death on February 14. As
Christianity spread through Rome, priests moved Lupercalia from
February 15 to February 14 and renamed it St. Valentine's Day.

Cupid became associated with Valentine's day for another reason.
According to Roman mythology, Cupid was the son of Venus, the
goddess of love and beauty. He caused people to fall in love by
shooting them with his magical arrows. He also fell deeply in love
with a mortal maiden named Psyche. Cupid married Psyche, but his
mother, Venus was jealous of Psyche's beauty and forbade her
daughter-in-law to look at Cupid. Psyche couldn't resist temptation
and sneaked a peek at her handsome husband. As punishment, Venus
demanded that she perform three tasks, the last of which caused
Psyche's death. Cupid brought Psyche back to life and the gods,
moved by their love, granted Psyche immortality.

Take a look at certain orchids’ roots,
and you will notice that they look like testicles. The word,
introduced in 1845 for the flower comes from the Greek orchis, which
literally translates as “testicle.” Speakers of Middle English in
the 1300s came up with a different word, inspired by the same
description. They called the flower ballockwort from ballocks, or
testicles, which evolved from beallucas, the Old English word for
balls.

Spray nonstick spray on the
inside of your votive candle holders. Remaining wax will easily
slide out. Use newspaper to eliminate odors in Tupperware, or the
crisper bin of your refrigerator, or in a purse with lingering
smells. Add a few drops of vodka and a teaspoon of sugar to make cut
flowers last longer. Rub the cut edge of cheese with butter or olive
oil to keep it from getting moldy.

With the beautiful pictures of the
Sochi games blasting at us at all hours lately, I thought it might
be interesting to write about the origin of the Olympics. The
Olympics got its name from city named Olympia, Greece, where the
original games were held. The 1936 Olympics were the first to be
televised.

Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin convened a congress in Paris in
1894 with the goal of reviving the ancient Olympic Games. The
congress agreed on proposals for a modern Olympics, and the
International Olympic Committee was formalized and given the task of
planning the 1896 Athens Games.

The first new Olympic Games featuring athletes from all five
inhabited parts of the world was in Stockholm in 1912. This prompted
the design of five interlocked rings. He drew and colored the rings
and added them to a letter Coubertin sent to a colleague. He used
his ring design as the emblem of the Committee's 20th anniversary
celebration in 1914. A year later, it became the official Olympic
symbol.

The rings were to be used on flags and signage at the 1916 Games,
but those games were cancelled, because of the ongoing World War, so
the rings made the official debut at the 1920 Games in Antwerp,
Belgium. At the end of each Olympic Games, the mayor of the
host-city presents the flag to the mayor of the next host-city. It
then rests at the town hall of the next host-city for four years
until the Opening Ceremony of its Olympic Games.

Coubertin explained his design: "A white background, with five
interlaced rings in the centre (sic): blue, yellow, black, green and
red...is symbolic; it represents the five inhabited continents of
the world, united by Olympism, while the six colors are those that
appear on all the national flags of the world at the present time."
He never said nor wrote that any specific ring represents a specific
continent. It is a myth that the rings were inspired by a
similar, ancient design found on a stone at Delphi, Greece. The
stone was made as a prop.

The Olympic motto was also proposed by Pierre, "Citius, Altius,
Fortius", which is Latin for "Swifter, Higher, Stronger."

Special Olympics - In 1971, The US Olympic Committee gave the
Special Olympics official approval to use the name “Olympics”. In
1988, the Special Olympics was officially recognized by the
International Olympic Committee. Special Olympics is the world's
largest sports organization for children and adults with
intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and
competitions to more than 4.2 million athletes in 170 countries.
Special Olympics competitions are held every day, all around the
world, including local, national and regional competitions, adding
up to more than 70,000 events per year.

The motto for the Special Olympics is "Let me win, but if I cannot
win, let me be brave in the attempt."

I have the honor and privilege to assist in presenting medals to
Special Olympians today at our Special Olympics of Texas
Developmental Skills Competition.

'Bang for your buck' means 'value
for the money spent' or 'excitement for the money spent' and is
based on the slang meaning of bang (excitement ) and buck (money).

Finland had one of the highest-ranked education system for many
years, but came in #2 in 2013, behind to Japan. The UK #3 in 2013;
Canada #7; Estonia #17 and the United States #18, out of 200
countries considered.

Japan spends an average of $10,596 per student and Finland $10,157.
The US spends $15,172 per student, the highest of any country and
2.5 times more per student than #17 ranked Estonia. The US does
not appear to be getting a bang for its bucks.

The first four months of the year
brings risk for tornadoes in the southern US. From April through
June, the biggest tornado threat shifts to the Plains, Upper
Midwest, and Great Lakes. The main tornado risk then stays along the
northern tier of the country through much of summer, while tropical
storms and hurricanes increase back in the South as they move
inland. These are followed in November and December with more
chances of tornadoes moving back to the South.

About ninety percent of US twisters occur in a 300-mile wide
corridor extending from West Texas to Canada. Warm, moist surface
winds blow up from the Gulf of Mexico, while cool high-altitude
winds blow over the tops of the Rockies. The cool air wants to sink
while warm air wants to rise. However, the mountain air causes a
temperature inversion, which prevents the warm surface air from
rising. It is like clamping the lid on a pressure cooker. The
surface weather systems build up a big head of steam until they
break through the inversion and shoot up to towering heights and the
violent updrafts and downdrafts lead to form tornadoes. Tornadoes
occur most frequently in the central plains of the US. Australia
has the second most tornadoes each year.

Did you know that Google has a feature
that allows you to search a specific site for information. Here is
how it works: To search a single website -
1. Type "site:" into the Google search bar (without the quote
marks).
2. Type the name of the website you want to search without the "http://" and the
"www."
3. Type the search term you are looking for.
For example, use Google to search my blog for peanuts, you would
type this - site:shubsthoughts.blogspot.com peanuts

A recent study analyzed data on
3,199 people, 60 and older, including their attitudes about how much
they enjoyed life, problems they had with basic daily functions such
as dressing and bathing, and how mobile they were.

About 21 percent were deemed to have a high level of enjoyment about
life, 56 percent a medium level and 23 percent a low level of
enjoyment. In an eight-year span, problems with day-to-day tasks
generally increased and mobility declined. About 4 percent of those
most upbeat about life developed two or more new functional
impairments, compared with 17 percent of those who enjoyed life the
least. People assessed as enjoying life at a medium or low level
were about 80 percent more likely than their happier counterparts to
have developed mobility and functional problems.

There is growing evidence that optimistic people not only tend to
live longer, but may enjoy physical benefits as well. As the song
says, "Don't
worry. Be Happy!" (Bobby McFerrin with Robin Williams and Bill
Irwin)

Wearing a
specialized garment to support a woman’s breasts dates as far back
as the 14th century BC in Greece where women wore a band of wool or
linen that was wrapped across the breasts and tied or pinned in the
back.

It is not clear who was the first to invent the modern bra, as
numerous patents in various nations were filed in the mid-19th to
early 20th centuries. However, Caresse Crosby, born Mary Phelps
Jacob, invented her design in 1910 and was among the first to patent
her 'backless brassiere'. She got the idea for her bra when she was
just 19 years old and going to a ball. Her dress for the evening was
a sheer gown. She, with the help of her maid, took two handkerchiefs
and some ribbon and sewed them together to make something like a
modern day bra, so she could have support, but not need to wear a
corset.

Frederick Mellinger, founder of Frederick’s of Hollywood, introduced
a padded bra, a push-up bra, a front hook bra, and more colorful
bras. The most expensive bra in history, valued at $15 million, was
modeled in 2000 by Gisele Bundchen and made from red satin and
hand-cut Thai rubies and diamonds.

Corsets dominated the undergarments of wealthier women in the
Western world for centuries, until WWI required quite a bit of
metal. In 1917, the US War Industries Board asked American women to
help their 'men win the war' by not wearing or buying corsets. During
the war it is estimated that they freed up around 28,000 tons of
steelthat could be used for
other types of heavy lifting.

William Procter was a
candle maker from England, and James Gamble was a soap maker from
Ireland. They settled in Cincinnati and met when they married
sisters, Olivia and Elizabeth Norris. They began business as Procter
and Gamble, October 31, 1837. Their first product was a floating
soap called Ivory.

During the 1920s and 1930s, the company sponsored a number of radio
programs. As a result, these shows often became known as 'soap
operas'.

Procter
and Gamble may have developed disposable diapers, but now they have
found a new life. Diapers keep baby bottoms dry because they absorb
liquids. They can also be used in planters. Cut strips of unused
diapers and place on the bottom of the pot before adding soil. They
absorb water and keep plants hydrated longer as they slowly release
the water to the soil on top.

Exported Chinese
porcelains were held in such great esteem in Europe that in the
English language china became a synonym for porcelain.

Bone china is made from cow bone ash and other ingredients.
The addition of animal bone ash gives bone china a warm color, while
fine china is a brighter white. Bone china has a translucent quality
compared to fine china. Fine china is made the same way, replacing
bone with kaolin clay.

Porcelain is fired at a higher temperature and is much
harder. Porcelain gets its name from old Italian porcellana (cowrie
shell) because of its resemblance to the translucent surface of the
shell. The raw materials are finely ground, cleaned, formed in a
mold, and then fired.

If the temperature is high the finished product is more durable and
known as porcelain. If it’s fired at a lower temperature it becomes
fine china. Fine china is much softer than porcelain, making it
suitable for plates and cups. Porcelain is strong enough and durable
enough for a wide range of products, such as electrical insulators
and toilets. Bottom line, all china is porcelain, but not
all porcelain is china.

Harvard was founded mainly
by a bequest from John Harvard, along with his extensive library in
1636. The iconic statue of him is really not him, because they could
not find a real picture of him so the artist had another person sit
in. That guy was a student, Sherman Hoar.

Hans Moravec, adjunct faculty member at
the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, pointed out
that machine technology mimicked a savant infant. Machines can do
long math equations instantly and beat humans in chess, but they
can't answer a simple question or walk up a flight of stairs (until
recently). He, along with many others has been working to solve that
paradox and help computers evolve on their own.

Early artificial intelligence (AI) researchers believed intelligence
was characterized as the things that highly educated scientists
found challenging, such as chess, symbolic integration, and solving
complicated word algebra problems. They thought, if those could be
done so easily by computers, things that children of four or five
years could do effortlessly, such as visually distinguishing between
a coffee cup and a chair, or walking around on two legs, or
responding to words would be infinitely easier for computers to
learn.

Computers/robots are finally beginning to move and think like
people. Narrative Science can write earnings summaries that are
indistinguishable from wire reports. We can ask our phones, 'I'm
lost, help.' and our phones can tell us how to get home. (The
smartphone was introduced in 2007, just seven years ago.)

Computers that can drive cars were never supposed to happen and ten
years ago, many engineers said it was impossible. Navigating a
crowded street requires a combination of spacial awareness, soft
focus, and constant anticipation. Yet, today we have Google's
self-driving cars and they have been approved by some states as
allowable on city streets. Ten years from impossible to common.

IBM, working with Memorial Sloan-Kettering cancer information is
using its computers to diagnose diseases and the Cleveland Clinic to
help train aspiring physicians. It just invested a billion dollars
to set up 'Watson' into a separate business unit for medical and
other complex decision making activities.

Bottom line, we are experiencing solutions to the paradox and it
is very exciting, although I am not sure machines will ever
replace the following or that we will ever want to.

Kosher salt is not kosher, does
not come from the Dead Sea, is not necessarily blessed by a rabbi,
and may contain additives, although it is usually free from
iodine.

Kosher salt refers to any coarse-grain salt that is used to make
meat kosher. Kosher salt usually is mineral salt, which may mined
anywhere. A rabbi does not "bless" the salt to make it kosher
(although Morton's Coarse Kosher Salt in the past has claimed to
be packaged under Rabbinical supervision). As with any other salt,
some commercial Kosher salt, uses anti-caking additives to make it
free-flowing.

There are seven different types of
twins: Identical, Fraternal, Mirror-Image, Polar Body (Half
Identical), Mixed Chromosome, Superfecundation, and Superfetation.
Some are obvious, such as identical and fraternal.

Mirror-Image twins occur only in identical twins. In approximately
23 percent of identical twins the egg splits later than usual,
most often day seven or beyond. The original right half of the egg
becomes one individual and the original left half becomes the
other. These twins will often have "mirror images" of their
features, such as hair whorls that run clockwise in one and
counter clockwise in the other, a birthmark on the right shoulder
of one and the left shoulder of the other, etc. The determination
is made by observation only, and the twins must be identical. One
twin will be right-handed, while the co-twin is left-handed. This
may be a partial explanation for the fact that a little over one
third of identical twins are left-handed, double the rate in the
general population. In extreme cases, all of the internal organs
are reversed in one of the twins, with the heart on the right, the
liver on the left and the appendix on the left.

Polar Body or Half Identical twins are unusual and rare. The polar
body appears when the egg has been developing, even before
fertilization. It is a small cell that does not function and will
usually degenerate and die. It is thought that in some cases, when
the egg is old, the splitting off of the polar body takes place in
an abnormal way. It then becomes larger, receives more
nourishment, and does not die as it usually does. Instead, it acts
as a second egg. The polar body and the egg share identical genes
from the mother, but they may then be fertilized by two separate
sperm from the father. This will result in twins who share half
their genes in common (from the mother) and the other half
different (from the two sperm). They share some features of
identical twins and some features of fraternal twins and thus are
called half-identical twins.

Mixed Chromosomes or Chimerism is thought to occur if two separate
sperm fertilize two separate eggs which then fuse, producing
individuals with different sets of chromosomes. Some have been
identified that have more than one distinct red blood cell type
and individuals who are both XX and XY (the sex chromosomes - XX
being female and XY being male.) This phenomenon might also be
associated with fused placentas causing intermixing of the
circulations. It is extremely rare and fewer than twenty-five
cases have been identified.

Superfecundation Twins can have different fathers. It happens when
the mother ovulates more than one egg and has more than one
partner during her fertile period. One egg is fertilized with
sperm from one partner, and the other egg from sperm of the second
partner. These types of twins are always fraternal or dizygotic.

Superfetation occurs when a women ovulates more than one egg, but
the eggs are released at different times, sometimes up to 24 days
apart, and they are fertilized when they are released. The
resulting twin pregnancy has different conception dates, so the
babies may be quite different in size. Days or weeks may separate
the births. It is quite an unusual event. This is called interval
birth.

Fish, snakes, and spiders are often
described as either being venomous or poisonous. The difference is
in the delivery system. Those that are venomous inject their
target with their toxin through a bite, sting, or sharp body
protrusion. Those that are poisonous have toxins that must be
swallowed or inhaled in order to be dangerous.

Venomous animals need to get their toxins beneath the skin and
then into the bloodstream to be effective. Some have a venomous
bite, but are safe to eat. Many caterpillars have defensive venom
glands associated with specialized bristles, known as urticating
hairs, which can be lethal to humans. There are about six venomous
snake and about seven venomous spider fatalities in the US each
year. Venoms are usually not lethal if swallowed.

Poisonous fish can be potentially deadly if eaten. Poisons work
mostly through the digestive system and mucous membranes of the
body. Some poisons can be transferred easily to humans by merely
touching or handling.

The yellow-bellied sea snake has both a venomous bite and
poisonous flesh.

There are several types of venom. Neurotoxins attack the brain and
the nerves. Animals whose bite results in paralysis use this type
of venom. Cytotoxins are a type of venom that causes the most
pain, as this venom attacks cells directly, causing them to
rupture and release their contents into the body. Hemotoxins
attack blood cells directly and most kill red blood cells, which
interrupts the flow of oxygen throughout the body. Not all
poisonous or venomous creatures are fatal to humans, but they
are all discomforting.

We do not often think of the
question of which came first, the chicken or the egg, and we
ignore how many times we egg someone on by calling them chicken.
Here are a few more ways we use animals in discussions.

Someone tried to buffalo me into this.
She double dog dared me
And hounded me for no good reason.
I knew it was a bunch of bull
And was not sheepish in telling her,
But still, I tried to ferret out some information,
Because I could not weasel out of it.
I also could not worm my way out of it.

I was fishing for how to begin this
Without being a leech or trying to sponge off of
anyone.

Too often we wolf down food or just plain pig out.
We feel playful and horse around or monkey around.
When we get caught, it is time to pony up.
Children often ape their parents and may parrot
what they say.
When someone gooses you, it is time to duck out,
but most often they just do it as a lark.

You probably think it is time for me to clam up, but I am
not done yet.
I have a few more squirreled away, just to badger
you a bit more.
Luckily there were no moles in the crowd to give away my
secrets.

Did you ever notice how some people cat around,
Even the coyote ugly ones.
Of course, I am not a social butterfly.

Quit carping, you know I out foxed you.
I led you down the rabbit hole
And snaked my way through another post.
I did not rat anyone out and am still crowing that
I managed to finished this
Even if many think the whole thing is for the birds. (OK,
so the egg part was a stretch, but it seemed to work.)

Came across an interesting idea
this week. If you really want to accomplish something, the normal
process is to set a goal by making it a TODO item, such as: 'Lose
five pounds in one month'.

An alternative idea is to turn that goal into a question, such as,
'How can I lose five pounds in one month'? The ideas quickly come,
because our mind needs to solve the puzzle we posed. People have a
built in need to come up with an answer to a question. It has less
need to accomplish a goal.

That question, "How can I drink more water?" might spark all kinds
of follow-up questions and ideas. What if I connect drinking water
to certain triggers, e.g. taking a swig of water every time I
check my email? What if I put a desired amount of water in a
bottle each day? The various what, if, and how questions may help
you arrive at a concrete plan, instead of just a goal.